November 23, 2008 8:34 pm

COACH JIM ZORN

(Thoughts on the final Seattle drive…) I couldn’t believe that we gave them the ball back. We were trying to do right and were trying keep that ball in our possession. We were working for another first down. Ladell (Betts) tried to strain for that extra yard. What happened was that he got on somebody’s back and wasn’t on the ground and somebody ripped the ball out. That was tough.

And then to have Shawn (Springs) be able to contort his body the way he did to get the pass. Matt (Hasselbeck) had to throw quick and we just came up with it. What a huge play. It really took making a few of those plays to win this football game. Because it was hard fought on both sides. We were really banged up on our d-line. They were warriors out there today. Everybody seemed to have something going on the defensive line that was hurting but they stayed in there.

(Your impression on your offense and defense…) There was some movement in what we did today offensively and defensively. We played a very good offense as far as Matt (Hasselbeck) being one of the better quarterbacks in this league. They (Seattle) did make some big offensive runs and he made a couple of big throws. Offensively was the thing that we needed to improve on. Our third down efficiency improved this week. We ran the ball again, effectively. Once we got our pass protection situated, we even protected Jason (Campbell) so that he could stand back on rhythm and get the efficent time he needed to throw the ball. We improved as we came out both offensively and defensively this week.

(What did it mean to come back to Seattle this week…) To come back here and to see so many friends was great. It was hard before the game because I did know a lot of people. I did want to say hi to a bunch of people. I just tried to keep from making it a distraction. It was kind of fun seeing people that I had worked with for so long. But once we got done with the pre-game, I was well prepared knowing what I wanted to do because I did all the study before I got here. I knew it was going to be a distraction and then I got my thoughts together and we came out and started the game.

That part was fun. The pre-game was fun to be able to see some of the guys that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

(Thoughts on Clinton Portis…) I think that he went to heroics, not being able to go all week. He was very limited in his time. He told me yesterday that he was playing, so I expected him to play. I kept Shaun Alexander up as an insurance policy. He (Portis) was a warrior. He really did a fine job running the football today.

We didn’t say a lot during the football game, Clinton and I. He was concentrating on what he had to do and I was concentrating on what I had to do.

(How was the teams focus today after two straight losses…) It was the two losses coming in to this that motivated us. It was also the commitment that our team has to continue to go. We were not in a crisis situation were we had to change a lot. Our players have played hard in the last two weeks and they played hard again today. There really has been no let down effort on this team.

(Thoughts on the win against a team you have had trouble against in the past, including the playoffs last season…) It was very nice coming here, knowing that this team had lost in the playoffs last year and be able to get this group, the satisfaction of going all the way across the country to beat the Seahawks in their home stadium, its been difficult to do the last four or five years.

So we achieved that and I think that its great to win against that team and those coaches that I know so well. I think its cool. I like the idea that when we go back and they regroup and we regroup, its all about the seven wins we’ve got now and keeping pace with this very difficult division.

Blog search

Twitter

About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part and abiding by these simple rules.